Fatherhood
by PhoenixSong2013
Summary: After twelve years, Harry Potter once again gets his hands on the Resurrection Stone to discuss fatherhood with his family.


Hogwarts looked the same as it always had. Even though the entire castle had been rebuilt, it looked just the same as it had on the day when he had first caught sight of the castle over the black lake. Harry Potter ignored the sneering winged-boars as they looked suspiciously down at him – they had never forgiven him when he had blasted the gates open in an attempt to let the other Order members onto the grounds – and pushed open the gates, letting the familiar Scottish winds wash through his hair and whip against his skin and clothes.

He felt a small smile touch his lips as he continued up the dirt-track path, watching the tall, marble monument come into view. Hermione had requested it be put there to symbolise the lives that had been lost in both wars, and it had stood there ever since. She was growing more and more famous now, whether it be for her notorious reputation for finding the rest of the Death Eaters or her new house elves campaign. He remembered telling her that they would be remembered anyway, but she had insisted that it be there so the kids at school would know just who had fought for their futures. He had felt guilty for it for days afterwards, but Ginny had managed to convince him that it would do no good to their sons if their father was moping around for a misunderstanding. Harry allowed another grin to lift his lips at the thought of his children – he had a daughter on the way now, and they were already planning a few names, even though Ginny was only three months along; Ginny liked the name Lily, after his mother, and she had also insisted that her middle name be Luna, for their friend had been the most supportive after the war.

"Uncle Harry!" shrieked the voice of his niece, Dominique Weasley, as the redheaded girl charged towards him and threw her arms around his waist, her eyes still full of innocence that looked out of place on a twelve-year-old girl. "What are you doing here? Is it something to do with Defence, 'cause I have that this afternoon with Professor Shacklebolt…"

Harry chuckled and hoisted her onto his hip, moving forward onto the grounds. He had been Head Auror for three years now, and his strength had only come from years of rounding up dark wizards and Voldemort's remaining supporters. "Oh, pleased to see me, are you?" he teased, and her eyes widened and she began to protest madly. "I'm messing with you, Dom, but where's Ted and your sister? Don't tell me they're in the library again."

Dominique nodded. "Teddy wanted to study for his OWLs and Vic wanted to help him – she's liked him for a while now and I'm getting tired of it. Louis, Roxie, Freddie, James and I have been trying to get them together for ages now but they're just being stubborn." She paused as he raised his eyebrows, blushing. "At least, that's what Mum says." He chuckled and set her down as they came to the edge of the lake and she reached up to peck his cheek before racing off in the direction of the huddle of girls at the base of the tree, not too far away. "Bye Uncle Harry!" she bellowed, and the girls around her giggled, all turning back to their books as though it was a normal occurrence for a war hero to set foot back on the grounds. In fact, it was, now that he had come to think of it – he, Hermione, Ron, George, and Luna were frequent visitors, and Neville worked as the Herbology Professor there. He shook his head and continued moving back towards the forest looming ahead, becoming more and more apprehensive.

"I wonder if it's still there…" he trailed off as he pushed through the branches of the first tree, moving towards a familiar clearing, deeper within the forest he had only dared to go once. He hacked away at the branches with his wand, his hands, or he let them hit him – he had had worse than branches whacking him.

He had never set foot inside the Forbidden Forest since his encounter with the Stone. He had dreaded the day when his children would someday go back to the place that had both been his home, an excited adventure until he had learnt just how dangerous it could be. By now, he had come upon the clearing, and he immediately dropped to his knees in the charred grass and began crawling around as his sharp, skilled eyes darted around. His fingers closed around the Stone a moment later and he pulled back, sitting back on his feet and staring at it with mixed emotions. He hated it because it could never truly bring back his family, he loved it because he could see them every day if he wished so, and he felt confused by it because it did not do what it was said to do.

"Harry!" a warm, somewhat surprised voice startled him into leaping to his feet, drawing his wand, and glaring at the possibly hostile force. Sirius Black's hands were stuffed in his pockets, his face bearing a wide grin, looking younger than he had in years. "Woah! I'm not going to try and kill you if that's what you think."

"Sirius," chided his mother's voice as a woman with the same emerald eyes as his, full of mirth and happiness, appeared at his shoulder, chuckling lightly. "You know what the poor man's been through – there's no need to tease him about it." She grinned at Harry. "I was wondering when you'd be back, Harry."

"Hi," he said lamely after a moment; to be honest, he hadn't really thought of what he'd say after twelve years of ignoring the fact that the Stone existed and never visiting them. His mother didn't seem to care, and as she moved forward, his lips curved in a small smile and he soon forgot the terms of his arrival. "How's life up there, Mum?" he inquired, and his mother gave a small giggle.

If possible, her smile grew wider. "Well, Remus and Tonks have been wreaking havoc again – last week Tonks burned down the kitchen and then Remus went and set fire to the cake I'd spent all week baking to celebrate your father's birthday." An indignant sniff was heard and he turned around to look a pink-haired witch in pyjamas, looking startled. "Morning, klutz. It's about time you woke up," his mother teased and Sirius snorted and Tonks groaned.

Tonks smirked. "Ha! You can't laugh at me, Lily – you and James had a pancake fight back during the time when Teddy turned fifteen! I couldn't forgive you for weeks! And you," she prodded her finger in Sirius' direction, "spent fifteen minutes setting up a prank for James and it backfired when you were coming down the stairs twenty minutes later…"

"Yes, Dora, we all know how funny that was," Remus wrapped his arms around Tonks' waist, but even he couldn't hold back the childish grin on his face. "And that was pretty funny. I don't understand how you could've forgotten what you'd done after only twenty minutes, Sirius – you weren't that stupid in our Hogwarts days, were you?" Sirius sniffed and Remus grinned at Harry. "So, how are you? Did you finally get together with Ginny?"

Harry smiled. "Yeah, I did," he replied. "We have two boys now – James Sirius and Albus Severus Potter. We also have a baby girl on the way. Ginny wants to name her Lily Luna, and I'm fine with that – that was actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to make sure Mum knew about it."

Lily's eyes were full of tears and his father appeared at Sirius' shoulder, beaming. "I told you he'd name his first-born after me!" Sirius boasted, and Tonks slapped his arm. "I mean, that's lovely, Harry, thanks so much…"

"I regret it now," Harry said solemnly. "Ron told him all about his namesakes and now he thinks that it's up to him to live up to you two. He almost blew up the whole castle a few weeks ago – Ginny, George, Angie and I were in there for hours. And he was only visiting!"

James chuckled. "George, Ron, and Angie?" a voice questioned, and Fred Weasley beamed at him. "Ooh, Georgie's got kiddies now, has he? And with my girlfriend!" he pretended to be angry and Harry couldn't suppress a laugh. "Ron has kids then, too?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "He and Hermione kissed in the middle of the battlefield and now they have two kids. Rose is eight now, and Hugo's three. George has twins – Roxanne and Fred, and yeah, Angie's his wife. Bill and Fleur have three kids; Dominique's twelve, Victoire's thirteen and Louis' six, almost seven by now. Charlie's gay – he and his boyfriend are still working in Romania with dragons. Percy and Audrey have two kids – Molly and Lucy. We're all one big happy family now that the war's over – we go to the Burrow every three weeks to catch up and the kids get weekends out of Hogwarts thanks to Minerva to join their families. We figured they'd need more time with their families since the war's over."

"You all went through too much," Lily murmured sadly, and James slipped an arm around her waist, looking at her slightly apprehensively. "If only we knew then what we know now, we could have stopped all this from happening and my baby would still have his parents."

James lightly slapped his wife on the arm, looking at her sternly. "You don't need to beat yourself up about this, Lils. We couldn't change this if we tried to – we didn't know then what we know now and that's completely alright. Besides, there's nothing you can do to change things."

Lily sighed and leaned against him, looking at Harry as though he weren't there. "I'm sorry I wasn't smart enough."

"I'm sorry I didn't do anything to save you," Harry countered, and as all of the others opened their mouths he cut them off with a violent wave of his hand. "If you blame yourselves for what happened to anyone, I will blame myself for not acting sooner and saving all of you. Are we clear?" Everyone nodded vigorously, Lily looking slightly hesitant, and he nodded. "Good."

Fred gaped at him. "Looks like fatherhood made you serious, Harry," he commented.

Harry smiled. "Yeah," he sighed. "But I've got three kids and a wife I'd give the world to – I'm not going to change a thing."

* * *

_**I've been under a lot of stress lately - my Nan's been diagnosed with cancer, my Dad lost his job, and Mum's been busy with work and homework seems to be piling up a lot with me. No matter how much I do, there's always more, and I guess this is a kind of stress relief. It's fluffy, it's short, and it's beautiful - I hope I can somehow put the summary into words when it comes to posting this... ah, poop. **_


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